《坠落的人》中的语象叙事

Ekphrasis in Don DeLillo’s Falling Man

语象叙事是一种多模态叙事,它在图像时代更受关注亦更有研究价值。唐·德里罗《坠落的人》中的语象叙事—用语言描绘、刻画和再现德鲁坠落照、塔罗牌中的倒吊人和莫兰迪静物画—贯穿小说始终,既推动故事情节的发展又成为小说结构的有机组成部分。小说用语言再现坠落照,并通过对坠落表演的生动描绘使静态、不在场的坠落照获得动态、在场言说的力量。坠落表演是对倒吊人的语象叙事,这是对人类命运的反思又体现出一种救赎意识。小说对静物画的描绘,呈现出画面感又有一种本雅明之"韵味"。这既提升静物画的艺术效果,又表现出语言与静物画之间的张力,还揭示出某种政治寓意。德里罗对坠落照、倒吊人和静物画的语象叙事是一种从视觉艺术到语言艺术的动态转换,使其挣脱"语言的牢笼"以发现语言与视觉形象及其他艺术作品之间的多维关系。语象叙事不仅为作家探索新的艺术形式提供了更多可能性,亦为文学评论提供了新的跨艺术门类的视角与方法。

Ekphrasis,as a type of multimodal narration,has attracted attention in this pictorial age.Depicting,portraying and recreating the"Falling Man"photograph taken by Richard Drew,"the Hanged Man"Tarot card,and Giorgio Morandi’s still life paintings,the pervasive ekphrasis of Don DeLillo’s Falling Man advances the plot and is an organic part of the novel.DeLillo vividly describes a performance of falling,endowing a static photo of falling with the dynamic and present power of speech.The performance of falling is in turn an ekphrasis of"The Hanged Man",which both reflects on the fate of mankind and embodies redemption.DeLillo’s ekphrasis of Morandi’s still life paintings presents the visual and pictorial via the verbal,involving a Benjaminian"aura".DeLillo’s approach stresses the artistic,visual effects of still life paintings;he reveals how they exist in tension with language,and highlights their political implications.DeLillo’s ekphrasis of the"Falling Man"photograph,the Hanged Man Tarot and Morandi’s still life paintings is a dynamic transformation from visual art to language art,enabling him to break free from"the prison-house of language"to discover the multidimensional relationships between language and visual art.Ekphrasis allows writers to explore new art forms,and offers new interdisciplinary perspectives and methods for literary criticism.